psoriasis drug said to help with inflammatory bowel disease

In order for a drug to be effective, it has to be 7% better than a sugar pill (placebo).  That’s right — seven percent.   Patients with Crohn’s Disease — a form of Inflammatory Bowel Disease —– were given the drug Stelara, a Psoriasis medication.  According to the study’s author, Doctor William Sandborn, of the University of California San Diego, the drug outperformed the placebo by a whopping 16% (40% for the drug as compared to 24% for the placebo), as reported in the latest issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.

The reason that I am writing about this is not to tell you how many side effects this drug has (there are many; some quite severe).  Or that the research was rife with conflicts of interest.  You should realize that with Big Pharma, these things are a given (HERE are a few examples).  Dr Sandborn and several of his co-authors reported receiving various forms of monies from Janssen (the company that actually funded the study), Johnson and Johnson (most of the co-authors were employed by J&J), PFIZER, Lilly, GLAXO SMITH KLINE, Boehringer Ingelheim, UCB, Abbott, and Prometheus. Sandborn also happens to hold patents on various drugs used to treat IRRITABLE BOWEL SYNDROME.  Nope; for this blog post, none of that is really relevant.  I want you to notice something about this study that I think is even more interesting — the thing that caught my eye as I was reading this morning.

Why would a Psoriasis drug possibly help people with Inflammatory Bowel Disease?  In other words, what is the common denominator between Psoriasis (a skin condition) and Crohn’s Disease (an Inflammatory Bowel Condition).  I see a couple of things right off the get go.  First, they are both INFLAMMATORY DISEASES, and if you have been paying attention to my blog, you already know that Inflammation is the common factor in practically all disease processes faced by Americans (HERE). 

Secondly, they are both AUTOIMMUNE DISEASES.  For reasons that are each day becoming better understood, Inflammation from various sources is what ultimately drives Autoimmunity.  Throw GLUTEN SENSITIVITY into the mix and you have a living, breathing, nightmare on your hands.  And here’s the kicker — once you are autoimmune, you are autoimmune forever.  Sure, you can control it naturally.  But it is not easy.  This is why people who are autoimmune tend to have multiple autoimmune diseases (HERE IS A LIST OF THE COMMON ONES).  In order to understand how all Autoimmune Diseases are related to each other (not just Psoriasis and Crohn’s) all you need to do is read this short article (HERE).